Arj Barker
Mercury Cinema
10:00pm, Sat 18 Mar 2000
Score: 7
Short Review: Anh!
Sydney comedian Anh Do came out to warm the crowd up for Arj, and (to be frank) he was bloody brilliant. More punchlines than something with a large number of punchlines indeed. Alas, he was on for a mere 5 minutes; then out came Arj.
My first reaction was “oh no, this is going to suck” – Arj struggled for a few minutes. Soon after, however, he opened up and the laughs came thick and fast. Covering such topics as sex (the perennial favorite), smoking and dating, Barker’s style was exceptional – no just-stand-up-and-tell-the-jokes stuff here. His use of volume and tone in delivering his gags was great.
Yet, at the end of the day, I would have happily traded 20 minutes of his act for another 20 minutes of Anh Do. Ah well… Arj was amusing enough to check him out next Fringe.